I don't know about you, but when I travel I reflect a lot on the journey -- not just the journey on the ribbon highway stretching ahead of me -- but the real journey. The only thing that really counts in life is getting to the goal and the goal for each of us is heaven.
Why did God make us? To know Him, love Him, and serve Him in this world and be happy with Him in the next. That's the goal. But how many in today's world know it? How many have been taught by their parents that everything has a price. The price of heaven is loving God and desiring His will. The price of living as if there is no God and no heaven is probably to lose it in the end. What a tragedy! To trade eternity for the finger snap of this life.
Peter Claver whose feast day is today knew what was important. He devoted his life to serving God's most wretched, the slaves on the ships coming from Africa. How many would go into those stinking holes to tend to the suffering? Few! but Peter Claver did. He tended to the sick and dying and baptized tens of thousands who lived lives of suffering but died like angels.
Many of the saints encourage pondering on the four last things: death, judgment, heaven, and hell. Thinking about those things helps to keep one's mind focused on what really matters.
Today, Larry and I visited the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help. None of us is alone on the journey. The shrine was filled with reminders that we have many helpers to guide us along the way. Statues of some of my favorite saints were there: Maximilian Kolbe, St. Jean Vianney, St. Clare, St. Francis, St. Michael the Archangel, St. Joseph. There is no excuse not to reach the goal with friends like that to help us.
May we offer each day to the Lord and live it for Him.
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